U:2623
by Crosis Laurekal
Summary: When the Brotherhood's ambush leaves him stranded and alone, the desire for revenge leads him to become his deadliest form ever.  Not a dinosaur, an alien, or even the beast inside of him: it's something much smaller.  A darker version of Titans Together.


Another random brainwave that sparked a story. This particular one deals with the Titans Together episode, though it's presented in a much different format. Considering how bleak everything looked at the end of Calling All Titans, I found the final showdown against the Brotherhood a big hard to swallow. Few too many Deus Ex Machina if you know what I mean. Anyway, hope everyone likes the story, but I do have one big, BIG request for all you readers.

See, I was at a bit of a loss with the title of the story. I didn't want to use anything that would expressly reveal the main event/ending, so I used something a bit unorthodox. What I ask is that if you know/look up what the title means and want to announce it, that you please refrain from publicly revealing it. So yes, please no reviews saying "THE TITLE MEANS ******." If you want me to know, please announce it to me in a PM, and I will praise you most shamelessly!

Chapter 1- Sole Survivor

_If you're going through hell, keep going._

_Winston Churchill_

* * *

><p>He hit the water hard and painfully, the biting cold a stark contrast to the terrible heat and pressure behind him. Seconds ticked by, and he simply allowed himself to sink further into the depths, the muted pulse of the ocean soothing and distracting him from the screech of rending metal and the roar of the explosion.<p>

A sudden burning in his lungs reminded him of the urgent need for air, and he turned back to the sunlight above, swimming past the still descending scrap and shrapnel as it fell into the abyss.

He breached the surface with a gasp, lungs greedily devouring the salty air. When he felt confident that he was no longer in danger of imminent suffocation, he dropped his gaze from the sky to the water's surface.

All around him, the ruins of the T-Ship smoldered. The sheer power of the blast had torn the vehicle to pieces. Fuel from the auxiliary tanks had scattered across the crash site, lighting the scene with dozens of small fires. He watched as the aft vanished with a gurgle beneath the waves, turbine still rotating sluggishly. It was hard to believe that just seconds ago this wreckage had been a functional vehicle, much less one he had been riding within.

'Geez, Cy's gonna be mad when he sees-'

A flash of light from above interrupted his thoughts, and he changed instinctively, morphing into a dolphin and leaping out of the way as the laser blast struck, flash-boiling the water into a cloud of steam.

He looked up to see Atlas sneering down from a small fighter craft, the robot's arm still morphed into a blaster.

"Atlas thanks you for sending that SOS. It saved me a great deal of time searching for you." Beast Boy mentally cursed his prior actions as the cannon glowed a brilliant red and fired.

* * *

><p><em>Three hours prior:<em>

He wasn't sure how long he just sat there. Legs dangling in the ocean, splitting his gaze between the melted scrap of his communicator and the sparking, broken shell of Cardiac. He knew that he should be relieved: Cardiac was no easy opponent, and it was by sheer luck that he had defeated it before his ship was completely destroyed.

That victory, however, was hollow in the larger scheme of things. Robin's last, frantic transmission had been enough to confirm what he already knew had happened. They had lost.

"Dammit Robin," he snarled. "I told you! You knew they were organizing, getting ready to hunt us down. Why didn't you listen to me?"

His hands clenched around the communicator, hot tears sliding down his cheeks as he waited, as if hoping by some miracle that a friendly voice would emerge from the broken device. But none came, or would ever come. Engaging the failsafe could only mean one thing: their transmissions had been compromised. He thought of all the Titans across the globe, isolated and unaware, perfect targets for a Brotherhood strike team. He remembered the panicked chatter that had recently filled the air. The attacks had been launched quickly and in perfect synchronization. It had been too late to stop even before Robin had destroyed the network.

Beast Boy sighed. Had Robin really thought that would accomplish anything? Their locations were already known, their members under attack. Breaking off communication only sealed their fates. There was no way to regroup, no way to get in touch with any other survivors… hell there was no way to even know if there WERE any other survivors. He and anyone else out there could only wait to be hunted down.

As much as he wanted to blame Robin for the disastrous turn of events, he knew that the blame ran much deeper than that.

"It's my fault. I should never have brought you guys into this. They were the Doom Patrol's enemy, my enemy, not yours," he whispered, recalling the fateful rescue mission that ended with his families, old and new, working together to stop the Brotherhood once and for all.

That should have been the end of it, but the Brain was nothing if not vindictive. Their actions had earned them the eternal hatred of the Brotherhood, and it brought every teen superhero directly into their crosshairs. And what had been done about it? Had they been warned about the resources, the powers, the lengths to which the Brotherhood would go? Had they been trained or instructed in the ways to combat a group so efficient and calculating? Had they been gathered together to prevent them from being picked off?

No, all they had done was given them the vaguest of warnings, a pat on the back, and a beacon that led the enemy right to their doorstep. They had acted as though this was some minor threat, blissfully unaware of the danger they faced. Only one of them knew the truth, and here he was, alone and adrift in the ocean.

Disgusted, he flung the communicator into the waves and climbed back into the ship. Bringing the engines online, he blasted out of the water and back into the skies, his first goal to arrive safely back on dry land. He hoped he could at least accomplish that much.

He didn't know if it was fear or shame that kept his hand away from the radio for the first two hours, but in the end he snatched the headset away from its cradle and set the frequency to one he'd hoped never to use again.

"This is DP-05 circumventing contact protocol to reach DP-00. Authorization code 01347240. Confirm receive, over!"

Nothing but the crackle and hiss of static came through the headset. He repeated the previous message, a cold trickle of sweat running down his neck at the silence on the line. Could the Brotherhood have gotten to them first? If the group was well-equipped enough to strike at Titans all across the world at a moment's notice…

Forgoing any encryption or coding, he began yelling frantically into the headset. "Doom Patrol headquarters, this is Garfield Logan declaring a priority SOS! My team and allies have come under Brotherhood attack, massive to total casualties suffered! I am en route to grid coordinates Romeo, Papa, November bearing-"

A sudden, high-pitched beeping tore his attention away from the radio, and his blood ran cold as the roar of an engine came from behind.

"MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY; DP-00 this is DP-05, under target lock by unidentified bandit! Fox Two in flight! Coordinates 17.41972 South by 2.25833 East! Attempting to break…"

The canopy blew open as his seat was ejected upwards. The headset tore free as his last, garbled words vanished into the airwaves. The parachute mechanism was unable to deploy, and he soon found himself hurtling past the doomed aircraft. He heard the murderous shriek of the missile's approach in the few seconds before the Sidewinder slammed into the hull of his ship. There was a sudden, crushing sensation as the force of the explosion flung him away from the seat. He was sent hurtling into the water as the aircraft blew apart above him.

* * *

><p>And that brought him back to the matter at hand, an unsociable robot about to use him for target practice.<p>

Atlas smirked down at him as his other arm shifted into its firing mode. Dozens of smaller blasters and cannons adjusted to targeting positions, and as each barrel whirred to life, Beast Boy lost the last of his infantile doubts: the Brotherhood wasn't taking any prisoners.

His tail gave a powerful stroke as he darted forward, just as the sea around him exploded in heat and steam. He turned and twisted through the water, shafts of light spearing down from above. Atlas was firing wildly, the distance between them and Beast Boy's erratic movements keeping him from locking in a shot. Even then, he was one target, and the killing machine above him had too many weapons to be avoided forever.

A moment of concentration, and the dolphin was replaced by a green penguin, a lance of energy burning through the water in front of it where a dolphin's snout would have punctured. He pushed himself backwards, earning a temporary reprieve as Atlas continued firing ahead, still thinking his target was moving forwards.

Beast Boy was tiring, and the terrible heat of the lasers was taking its toll on his body. Even a near-miss superheated the water around him, and he knew that it wouldn't be long before he'd end up boiled alive. The thought of escape crossed his mind. He could dive as deep and as far into the depths as he could, lose his pursuer in the darkness and pressure of the ocean trenches.

But what would that accomplish? Running and hiding, fearing for his life, lamenting the circumstances that drove him to such a deplorable situation. No, that was not how he planned to spend his future. With his mind set, he shifted into swordfish and rocketed up towards the surface.

Years later, many would ask him just what drove him to turn and fight. What decision or epiphany sent him on such a path of destruction and death?

Sometimes, if he was regretful or melancholy, he would say that it was guilt. That he wanted to accept responsibility for the pain he caused his friends by setting the Brotherhood upon them. To redeem himself by continuing the fight against evil.

A few times, when he was feeling bitter or cynical, he would claim that it was a suicide run. That he was sick and tired of putting himself at risk in a world where evil never rested, never quit. He finally saw the futility of his life, and wanted to end it all.

Most times, when he remembered the people and the ideas he held dear, he would say that it was his sense of duty, his love for his friends that pulled him away from the ocean depths. He couldn't run away, even if he had no chance of success. He owed it to them, and he would make them proud.

But only one time, the moment before he turned and swam up into Atlas' laser fire, did he acknowledge the simple truth.

He had remembered Starfire telling him of a horrible future, one where he was a fat, bald, coward who locked himself away from the world because he let fear rule his life. There was no way in hell he was going to live, or die, like that!

* * *

><p>Atlas paused for a moment, his view impeded by the billowing steam that flowed up and around him. He waited for the steam to clear, ejecting drained power cells and energy clips, allowing the cool air to sap the heat from his weapons. He flew lower, until his craft was only a few short feet above the water. He had no idea whether or not the boy had been hit, but his vehicle's sonar told him that <em>something<em> was down there, and he had no intention of leaving until it was chum. What he failed to notice, however, was that in between pulses, the echo on his sonar became something much, much bigger than a swordfish.

There was a deafening splash, and the steam was parted as Atlas looked down. What he saw was teeth, and a massive, gaping set of jaws opened wide enough to swallow his ship whole. Atlas watched in terrified amazement as the colossal mouth bore down on him. He was too stunned to fire a weapon, and only managed to leap out of the teeth's path after the sound of screeching, crumpling metal broke his paralysis.

Atlas knew that he was dooming himself from the moment he broke the water. As he sank like a stone, he couldn't help but see the ineptitude in sending an extremely heavy robot, of all things, on a mission in the middle of the ocean. He was going to sink until he hit bottom, and then he was going to rust before he could drag himself out. Then a splash came from above him, and he realized with a chill that he wouldn't last long enough to worry about that.

Now that its mouth wasn't opened and aiming right for him, Atlas could finally see the creature that Beast Boy had sent against him. At first glance it could pass as a great white shark, although a few prominent differences were apparent, such as the stockier body, or the more pronounced dorsal fin, or the fact that it was sixty-seven feet long.

The green megalodon gave a savage twist of its jaws, and the crushed pieces of Atlas' ship fell away, leaving metal and wires lodged between its gleaming teeth. Its great head turned, sweeping through the water as if searching for him. It paused, and fear spread through him as he saw one jet-black eye looking straight at him. With quick strokes of the tail, the behemoth swam away. For a moment, Atlas thought he was being left to his fate; that perhaps Beast Boy would simply let him sink. That theory was quickly invalidated as the shark made a quick turn and barreled straight towards him. The jaws stretched open and engulfed the robot's body, and then the force of 180,000 newtons smashed down on him. The golden robot was torn in half, components and pieces sent flying, oil clouding the water as the shark ripped Atlas apart.

Atlas shuddered as his power supply failed. Warning messages and emergency telltales blinked rapidly across his eyes as cracks and static filled the screen. The final image to be shown was of the shark moving away, its massive eye passing right alongside Atlas' head. As he stared into the unblinking sphere, his last coherent thought was appropriately fitting.

'_He's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes...'_

His viewports faded as the last shudder of power ran through his body, and the lifeless pieces of Atlas sank out of view forever.

* * *

><p>Beast Boy lay floating on his back, absently watching the clouds roll by as he spat out the occasional screw or metal shard that remained stuck in his gums. His thoughts turned to Atlas, or what was left of Atlas, and how quickly and easily that problem had been solved. But in the long run, it accomplished just as little as his previous defeat of Cardiac. He was still lost, still alone, and still on the run. The only notable difference was that now he had no transportation.<p>

Resigning himself to a very long swim, he was preparing to transform when another laser blast cut through the water just to his left. Flipping onto his stomach, he looked up just as two Brotherhood ships shot overhead, a platoon of Immortus' cyborgs training their weapons upon him.

"You've gotta be kidding me," he yelled, ducking under the water to avoid the hail of laser fire. Launching himself into the air, he changed into a pelican and quickly came alongside the first of the two hovercraft. A quick banking turn put him over the cockpit, and he wasted no time in morphing to a gorilla and putting both fists through the Plexiglas shield and the pilot's chest. As the vehicle began to list out of control, he balanced onto his hands and drove both feet onto the nose, sending it and its hapless crew of gunmen drilling into the water.

The second ship turned to begin another strafing run, but the green gorilla had already changed once again, this time into an albatross that deftly avoided the gunfire. A quick surge of his wings brought him over the aircraft, and he changed back as the ship shot under him, barely managing to grab hold of a tailfin as it passed.

The remaining gunners brought their weapons upwards, and Beast Boy struggled to haul himself onto the fuselage before their shots took out an engine. Scrambling to his feet, he leapt down into the gun bay and rushed for the cockpit, ducking and weaving around the cyborgs as their shots punched holes in the ship around them. Though in a hurry, he had to admire the sheer number of weapons and explosives the crew had brought along with them. As he passed by a crate of remotely detonated plastique, he felt a small surge of pride on how badly the Brain seemed to want him dead.

Arriving at the door, Beast Boy shifted into a kangaroo and kicked the barrier inwards, allowing himself to fall backwards to dodge another barrage of energy beams. Lunging into the cockpit, he barely managed to grab hold of the laser pistol and shove it aside before the blast took off his head. Tearing off the pilot's arm, he grabbed its metal throat and pulled it from the chair.

"I'M DRIVING," he yelled as he reached for the stick, only to have the robot's remaining arm lunge for him. He ducked its grasp, and the cybernetic fingers clamped down over the throttle. He barely had time to sever the arm before the engines gave a sickening howl as they roared into life. The sudden acceleration crushed him into the seat as the jet screamed low over the water, engine circuits pushed to overload and beyond as they punched through the sound barrier. The speed increase at least helped get the cyborgs off his back, as each one was pressed flat into the wall as though its weight had instantly tripled.

Beast Boy blinked away tears as the pressure continued to build, constricting around his body until he could swear that his bones were aching. Fighting against the g-forces, he wrapped his hands over the cyborg wrist, desperately trying to rip it away from the throttle. But as hard as he pulled, the metal fingers refused to budge. He didn't have the strength to remove them, and the pain and pressure were too great for him to morph into something stronger.

He thought he might have screamed, but any sound was drowned out by the engines. Spots danced in his vision, and he knew that he only had seconds remaining before he blacked out. He needed a miracle.

As if in response, a hard shudder ran through the jet, and a series of booms rang out from behind. The acceleration began to die, and he didn't have to look back to know that the strain on the engines had finally pushed them too far. The jet's nose angled towards the horizon, and Beast Boy noticed with no small relief that they were about to crash land on the shores of a beach.

'Well, at least I got back to the mainland nice and quick,' he thought with a grin.

Free to ignore the hand still locked onto the throttle, Beast Boy pulled himself away from the seat and punched a hole in the cockpit glass. Climbing back onto the roof of the plane, he crouched and watched as the ocean drew closer and closer. Beast Boy braced himself, changed into an osprey and leapt into the air just as the jet hit water.

He watched from above as the aircraft glanced off the water, wings sheared away, pieces scattered and robots sent flying as it skipped again before slamming nose-first into the sandy beach. The green raptor made a quick circle over the wreckage before landing on what was left of the cockpit. Changing back into a human, he reached in and retrieved the detonator to the explosives he had passed beforehand.

Stepping over broken robots, Beast Boy lifted the detonator and cast a harsh look behind him.

"Now try and follow me."

There was a short _click_, followed by a massive explosion, and all that remained was burning wreckage.

This wreckage was all that awaited the Doom Patrol when they arrived hours later, leaving them to wonder just what had become of their wayward son.

* * *

><p>Woo! First chapter done. Now, of course, I've made the critical error of having three multi-chapter stories in progress at the same time. I can only hope this provides a greater degree of inspiration and work ethic now that I'm splitting attention between three works. Worst case scenario, somebody who prefers one story over the others thinks that their favorite isn't getting enough attention and comes after me with a pitchfork.<p>

Let's hope not!

Cro


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